GoodSam Club was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. It has a history of more than 50 years. Trail-R-News is a publishing company headquartered in California. Trail-R-News Enterprises founder Art Rouse is credited as the founder of the Good Sam Club. Rouse and his two sons bought the club in 1968. And develop it into a membership system and expand some services related to RV. Rouse, who sold Trail-R-News in the 1980s, died on June 19, 2007, at the age of 89, from brain injuries caused by a fall. The name of the club comes from the biblical parable of Good Samaritan (Good Samaritan: The Good Samaritan; a character in the parable of Christ, a model of compassion for the needy).
The GoodSam Club is operated by GoodSam Corporation, which also operates a store brand dedicated to selling RV and camping products – CampingWorld (Camping World) Super RV Center. At present, the club has more than 1.7 million members in North America, more than 2,100 top GoodSam RV parks/RV campsites, 120 CampingWorld super RV centers and 650 pilot driving sites. From product sales to service to entertainment experience, the business and service scope laid out by the club penetrates into all latitudes of RV camping life, making its brand image closer to daily life and easier to be accepted by the public.
divide and conquer
As early as 1985, at the initial stage of the development of American caravan culture, the Good Sam Club already had more than 450,000 members. In just over 20 years, the number of club members has grown to more than 1.7 million. Good Sam has numerous affiliated chapters that are also directly affiliated with the Good Sam Club. Some chapters hold rallies, meetings, etc. in conjunction with state clubs. Clubs may have their own logo, which is placed with the Good Sam Club headquarters logo, and each club has its own vest and color.
Although the size and number of Good Sam clubs in different regions are different, they all always adhere to the same purpose – to provide members with the best quality products and services. In terms of club management, Good Sam adopts the principle of divide and conquer. According to the number of club members in each state, it matches the corresponding managers to manage the club in a unified way, including organizing RV camping gatherings, camp entertainment activities, holding exhibitions, charity evenings, etc. These social gatherings are effectively connected in the form of clubs, forming a “scattered but not divided” social network, which jointly promotes the spread and promotion of caravan and camping culture.
All-encompassing service system
A large part of the reason why Good Sam Club can gather more than 1.7 million members is due to its mature and perfect management system and detailed services that penetrate into all aspects of RV life. Most importantly, Good Sam Club members can enjoy the most comprehensive discount services in North America.
Club members get 10% off camping at Good Sam RV parks/camps. At the same time, it will also cooperate with the National Sports Car Racing Association to hold car events.
· Roadside assistance service
So far, GoodSam club has successfully provided road rescue for 1.6 million people. Based on years of practice, the club can ensure that the needs of members are met to the greatest extent. In the selection of the most valuable service in 2016, the road rescue system of the GoodSam club was slightly better than that of the AAA club. Because GoodSam Club has a wide range of laying, it can be seen everywhere in many parts of North America, so whether it is long-distance or short-distance road rescue, GoodSam Club can guarantee that the vehicle will be towed to the nearest service center. It’s worth mentioning that GoodSam’s roadside assistance isn’t limited to RVs. Cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles and even boat trailers are all covered.
· RV expansion service
The extended service plan provided by the GoodSam Club refers to a RV mechanical accident insurance with a wider coverage than the RV insurance provided by RV manufacturers. This insurance can greatly reduce the cost burden caused by RV mechanical failure. The types of this extended service are mainly five-wheel trailers, self-propelled trailers, caravans, cars, pickups and SUVs.
· Insurance service
Good Sam Club has an agency that provides insurance for RVs – Good Sam Insurance Agency. The insurance agency provides protection services for RVs and their owners’ personal property, allowing members to enjoy a worry-free vacation time during the journey. The partners of the Good Sam brand are also actively providing members with the best quality services. The insurance company can customize travel routes for members’ families, pets, relatives and friends, and provide insurance services for members’ personal and property safety, medical care, and accidents on the way.
· Financial Services
When you use your Good Sam membership card, you will earn 5 points when you purchase any Good Sam product or spend $1 at any Camping World Super RV center; Earn 3 points; in all places where the Good Sam membership card can be used, you will get 3 points for spending 1 dollar. The more points you get, the more preferential items you can enjoy. In addition, Good Sam Club provides loan or credit card preferential services for all new and second-hand RVs. Financial services specially designed for RV owners often have lower interest rates and will not bring greater financial pressure to borrowers.
· Travel assistance
With Good Sam’s travel assistant, you don’t have to worry about medical emergencies that occur in the United States or abroad during travel, and you don’t need to consider medical expenses, which reduces the stress of travel.
digital community
Among the more than 2,100 campsites under the Good Sam Club, members can enjoy a 10% discount when camping. The high-quality and cheap campsite services naturally attract a large number of tourists, and the members are also familiar with each other during camping and camping activities. The member ecological clusters inoculated by the club. As a special communication platform, the camping social culture of Good Sam Club is constantly changing and upgrading with the popularity of RV camping life.
From the perspective of the number of members, from the initial hundreds of thousands to the current millions, the mutual dissemination of information and mutual recommendation among members is also an important reason for the surge in the number of members. The club will hold a series of camping activities from time to time, providing opportunities and platforms for members and friends to enhance mutual understanding. There are still many clubs like Good Sam in the United States, and “service” and “content” are always the basis for clubs to attract members. Good Sam Club has its own social platform – Good Sam Blog, in which members can share their own experience, camp information and camping feelings with other members, build a nationwide Good Sam local area network, and eventually form a benign Member ecological cluster.
Rally marketing remains a blue ocean for camps and clubs. Every September is the busiest season of the camp, and the club will also compete to hold gatherings at this time to promote member exchanges. The Good Sam Club continues to condense the communication and understanding among members through such gatherings, and give full play to the value of the chain system. Although the process of cultivating members’ social habits is relatively long and cannot be accomplished overnight, it has to be said that the work Good Sam Club has done in this area is indeed remarkable.
In the course of the development of Good Sam Club, the interests of members have always been closely connected with the club. From another perspective, it can be understood that the complete and mature membership system and meticulous and high-quality services have finally achieved the current structure of Good Sam Club. There is no overly complicated form, and there is no wavering brand positioning, which makes Good Sam avoid many detours in club positioning. Any membership-based social system is closely integrated with products and users. In the process of product upgrading and optimization, users are constantly accepting new products and entering new models. In the process of synchronous “growth” of the member social system with products and users, understanding the market and clear positioning may be the helm of the fate of the enterprise.
